Hi Brendan, I saw two groups of gulls feeding on flying ants in Brooklyn yesterday evening (7 Sep), at Plumb Beach at 7:10 and at Spring Creek Park at 7:20. Laughing and Ring-billed Gulls usually predominate in these events, with Common Terns and Herring Gulls also participating sometimes. The emergences tend to be around this time, but it's interesting how synchronized they are within a given year.
Here's a photo of from 2009. An entomologist friend of mine once identified the species involved, but I can't remember. https://www.flickr.com/photos/96951581@N02/29444884802/in/datetaken/ Shai Mitra Bay Shore ________________________________________ From: bounce-120766208-3714...@list.cornell.edu [bounce-120766208-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Brendan Fogarty [birde...@yahoo.com] Sent: Thursday, September 8, 2016 8:04 PM To: NYSBIRDS-L Subject: [nysbirds-l] Am. Golden-Plover - Nickerson Beach 9/8 (Nassau Co) Hi everyone, Peter Post's plover continued apparently all day, bathing at an ephemeral pool just south and west of the main Nickerson lot. 2 Royal Terns were working just offshore and a Lesser Black-backed Gull was on the beachfront. As I was driving out of the lot I had a naked-eye look at a medium-sized, mostly dark shorebird which looked like a (likely the) golden-plover, flying strongly east towards Pt Lookout and Jones Inlet. At Camp Anchor, a couple of beaches west of Nickerson (with the "mushroom" pavillions), a large congregation of shorebirds feeding in the surf included 130 American Oystercatchers, 160 Red Knot, and several billion Sanderlings. The most interesting experience was a sudden vortex of Laughing Gulls that formed over the Nickerson ballfields around 6:45pm. Roughly 300 gulls and some terns were feeding on a fairly dense emergence of small, termite-like winged insects. And over the dunes at anchor around 100 Common Terns and a few Laughing Gulls were performing a similar stunt. Larids flycatching is very entertaining to watch. Best, Brendan Fogarty -- NYSbirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
